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Summer School results show students made gains

Future of program in question with grant funds declining

Summer school has a positive effect on students' achievement and growth. That was the message RE-1 Valley School District Assistant Superintendent Ron Marostica shared with the school board Monday, when he presented results for this year's summer school program.

This year was the third consecutive year the district has offered summer school through grant funding. All English Language Learner (ELL) students were invited to attend this year's program. Approximately 130 kindergarten through fourth graders participated in the three-week session, which was held at Ayres Elementary.

To determine the impact that summer school had on a student, the district looks at their results from the PALS (Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening) assessment in the spring and in the fall. Students who fall below the sum score cut score on the assessment are identified as having a significant reading deficiency (SRD) and teachers must write a READ (Reading to Ensure Academic Development) plan for those students, as required under the Colorado READ Act.

Some students who attended summer school did transfer to another district, so their growth and achievement could not be measured.

Of the 32 students in summer school who were in kindergarten last year and transitioned to first grade this year, three were identified with SRDs in the spring and one in the fall.

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Approximately 40 summer school students transitioned from first grade last year to second grade this year. Five of those students were identified as having SRDs in the spring and 12 in the fall.

Marostica pointed out that even though there was an increase in students identified as having SRDs, some of those students still showed some growth in instructional reading level.

"Teachers look at all of that data to say, 'you know what, without summer school' — because the teachers know the kids well — 'this kid would have been in a real world of hurt,'" he said.

Lastly, of the 25 summer school students who transitioned from second grade last year to third grade this year, three were identified as having SRDs in the spring and four in the fall.

Marostica noted the only students who didn't come to summer school were those who had extended time under a program given by Laurie Kjsoness, director of student services. Those students who did attend summer school included many ELL students and students with IEP (Individualized Education Plans).

"The overall impact of summer school still maintains just its very positive effect for our students," he said.

Myra Westfall asked how this year's results compare to last year's. Marostica said this year's results are very comparable to last year's. However, he pointed out, last year and the year before, they only looked at sum scores not the instructional reading level or sound letter IDs. This year they looked at all those areas.

Whether or not RE-1 will be able to offer summer school again next year is something that's unknown at this point. The program is funded by an early literacy grant, as well as Title money. The district does have another early literacy grant this school year, but it's cut way back.

"This is another one of those CDE (Colorado Department of Education) grants that's multi-year, but they expect you to start self-sustaining it and that's not going to be something we can really do," Superintendent Dr. Jan DeLay told the board.

Marostica pointed out that without the summer school program some students could see a significant step backwards. He noted the demand for the summer school program and the attendance has increased every year.

In talking about the value of the program, he shared that there were more students this year than ever before who were identified as accelerated learners and their parents have commented that summer school was "the best thing to ever happen to my kid."

Marostica also said that having ELL parents come to the school to show them what the district does with ELL instruction was a huge part of the program's success this year.

In other business, board president BJ Ball reported on the Colorado Association of School Boards (CASB) Delegates Assembly, Oct. 15, in Fort Collins. At the assembly delegates, including Ball, voted on a number of resolutions brought by school boards around the state, as well as CASB's Legislative Resolutions Committee. The RE-1 board discussed some of those resolutions at their last workshop.

"Overall I believe the votes went fairly in line with kind of what we were talking about," Ball said.

He mentioned one resolution that came that the board didn't get to review, which was around the use marijuana money to fill in the gap in funding for special education. Today the federal government is supposed to pay roughly 40 percent of the overall cost of special education, but in actuality they pay about 15 percent.

Ball questioned if that could be done without a constitutional amendment and how that would work with the federal government, because they still list marijuana as an illegal substance. He was told not 100 percent Colorado's marijuana was allocated to BEST (Building Excellent Schools Today) under the constitutional amendment; there is a portion of money that isn't earmarked for anything and it's up to the legislature to determine where those funds go.

"It hasn't been a lot, but it's starting to grow," Ball said.

As far as how it would work with the federal government's stance on marijuana, it was discussed at the assembly that the federal government probably wouldn't care, because it's already in Colorado's law.

Ball did vote in favor of the resolution.

He also mentioned there was a lot of discussion around equity among the dollars that the state is allocating to different school districts versus adequate funding. There were several resolutions asking for less funding to be allocated to bigger school districts and more to go to smaller districts, so that everyone gets equal funding. Those resolutions were defeated out of concern about creating animosity between districts.

Ball asked moving forward to hear the rest of the board's opinions on whether funding should be equitable or adequate. He believes it should be adequate, suggesting that if the state mandates a program and it's going to cost a certain amount of money, the state should fund it.

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